Jungheinrich has no local customer support and the parts will darn near break the bank. If you want to wait 3 weeks for parts. I seen"ALOT" better technology come from Germany than a Forklift. To many wiring problems is what I have seen with them and down time due to no local dealer support and parts on back order.

Crown is so far behind its not even funny. I was at promat in illinois this year and if crown had a booth there i could not find it.

if you want to judge by productivity and battery life.
which company wins the sysco forklift rodeo every year?

model 7400 raymond.

Raymond invented the reach truck literally.

CROWN is the best equipment in reach trucks

All the opinions here are great and useful but, the bottom line is, how important is down time to your business? If it's important to have your machine producing for your business than I would consider local dealer support 1st, brand 2nd. The foriegn brands may beat the US brands hands down (not my opinion), they can be the best lift in the world, but as a value to YOUR business should depends on machine uptime.

The Hyster is very old technology and cumbersome in comparison to the european brands
Try a Linde, this is the number truck in the UK, the performance is excellent and reliability second to none.
Gary

My best reccomendation is the Jungheinrich.
they are best for the customer.
1, ease of axcess
2, quick repairs diagnostics
3, designed to suit each customers needs

Multiton was the brand that Jungheinrich entered the US with. They (Jungheinrich) have quickly built a solid reputation amongst end users and dealers of their equipment for manufacturing top of the line AC forklifts. Go with the Jungheinrich for two reasons: Ergonomics and Run time. You have good dealer support in your area as well.

Have you consider a more versatile truck? check the Flexi at web site. www.narrowaisle.com. If you do call Jeff at 214-583-2420.
Good luck

Just a small bit of information, Jungheinrich is not new in United States. They have been around awhile. Their products were marketed under a different brand name, which I can't recall at this moment (Alzheimers light strikes again). The company was based out of Virginia and head up by a person named Dirk Von Holt. A few years ago Junheinrich decided to expand their presence in the US & hired some experienced folks to get it going - one person I have known is head of Marketing/ Sales is Chuck Leone a very good person. The product support is there too!

As Edward T said let your operators try 'em before you buy 'em - teh operators are a vital key to minimizing your operational costs and increasing through put.

go with the Jungheinrich...
your operators may never know how much they appreciate the ergonomics, but the ones that have to drive the Raymond or Hyster, and then get a few shifts in the Jungheinrich (and get used to the differences) won't give up the Jungheinrich again, and will consider it a demotion if you make them drive the Raymond or Hyster ever again.
When you will be able to tell you got more work done in less time, with less operator fatigue is at the end of the day/shift.
when considering "operational cost" it is not only what the tires cost to replace, but how your operators take it when you ask them for 20 minutes work in the last 15 minutes of the shift, also.

You can try CROWN ESR 5000 reach truck which is very good. less operating cost

Raymond.
in that area crown support is **** poor.
plus raymonds new 7400 makes crowns reach look like a pallet jack

Hyster's pantograph on the reach assy is a problem area, we have customers who continuously see twisting and then binding (not beefy enough) of course this is mainly from operators travelling with the reach assy extended and loaded but this is the only brand I see the issue with.$$$$$

Actually, the Jungheinrich reach is a completely different design than the Mit and Cat reach design. The tractor for the Mit/Cat reach was designed and is built by Rocla in Finland.

One difference between the JH design and the other designs is the 48v power system. In addition, they also offer moving mast reach trucks in the US, which may have advantages or disadvantages over the pantograph style, depending on the application.